It’s a long way from the bottom to the top. But that is the call of the Christian life. "That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4b).

The title of this chapter belongs to Thornton Wilder. In his book, the scene opens on New Year’s Eve, 1899, just before the new century is born. A group of men are sitting around the stove in a country store. Dr. Gillis, the community seer, is facing the question, "What will the new century be like?" He answers:

The creation has not yet come to an end. The Bible says that God created man on the sixth day and rested, but each of those days was a million years long. That day of rest must have been a short one. Man is not an end but a beginning. We are at the beginning …